This report contains the results of a feasibility study focusing on growth management in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) that was designed to answer two questions: (1) What data are available to assess the capacity of and constraints on existing and planned water and wastewater systems relative to the availability of fresh water and the assimilative capacity of the region’s inland water systems? and (2) Using the available data, what types of data products and tools can be developed to better inform the allocation of growth across the Greater Golden Horseshoe?

This Policy Brief defines and describes the Tor-York West megazone (TYW), one of three regionally, provincially, and nationally significant employment zones identified in the Neptis Foundation report Planning for Prosperity.

This Policy Brief defines and describes the Tor-York East megazone (TYE), one of three regionally, provincially, and nationally significant employment zones identified in the Neptis Foundation report Planning for Prosperity.

This is the fourth in a series of Briefs on the land supply for future urban development designated by municipalities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe to accommodate growth to 2031 and beyond. This Brief examines the land supply represented by Undelineated Built-up Areas (UBUAs) – rural settlements identified by the Province as being without full municipal water and wastewater servicing. Although the Growth Plan states that these small towns, villages, and hamlets should not be a focus of growth, a contradiction between the Growth Plan and a supplementary provincial document allows municipalities to count subdivisions on the edges of UBUAs as “intensification.”

This is the third in a series of Briefs on the land supply for future urban development designated by municipalities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe to accommodate growth to 2031. This Brief sums up the supply of land in (a) the Designated Greenfield Area (DGA), (b) unbuilt areas within Undelineated Built-up Areas (UBUAs), (c) land added through boundary changes to Barrie and Brantford and (d) Amendment 1 to the Growth Plan.

This report takes a closer look at the Airport Megazone, one of the three suburban employment megazones identified in the 2015 report, Planning for Prosperity, and the second largest concentration of employment in Canada.

This is the second in a series of Briefs on the land supply for future urban development designated by municipalities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe to accommodate growth to 2031. This Brief examines the question of serviced land in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The first looked at how much land has been built on in the past decade in the GTHA and concluded that only 20% of the total greenfield land supply until 2031 has been built on. Future Briefs will look at the rate of consumption of greenfield lands in Outer Ring municipalities beyond the Greenbelt and other lands that are part of future settlement areas, even though they are not part of the Designated Greenfield Area.

This is the first in a series of Briefs that will examine the land supply for future urban development designated by municipalities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe to accommodate growth to 2031. This Brief examines the amount of land that has been built on in the GTHA since the establishment of the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe in 2006.

This report maps and analyzes the dynamics of long-term structural changes – not merely cyclical market fluctuations – brought about by globalization and rapidly evolving technology in the economy of the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The report concludes that the Growth Plan for the GGH is not grounded in the reality of the region’s economic geography.

In August 2014, newspaper headlines trumpeted the “Manhattanization” of Toronto. City Council, in the span of two days, approved 18 new high-rise apartment and office buildings in downtown Toronto, on top of 70,000 residential units already approved for construction. But what happens in downtown Toronto is only a small part of a much larger story of growth across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

This report compares the 2001–2011 growth patterns of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, where growth continues mainly on greenfields, and Metro Vancouver, which grew mainly through intensification, especially along frequent transit corridors.

Neptis has prepared this discussion paper to answer three questions. (1) How does the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe work? (2) Is the region running out of land for development? (3) Have development patterns changed since the Plan was established? The findings are intended to contribute to the 10-year review of the Plan.

Neptis analysis show that of the 56,200 hectares designated for urbanization between 2006 and 2031 in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, only 9% was actually built on between 2006 and 2011. This finding suggests that the remainder of the land supply is likely to last well beyond 2031.

Preliminary findings from the Neptis Foundation showing how four major Canadian cities have grown in the past 20 years indicate that while the populations of the Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Toronto city-regions continue to expand, the rate at which new land is being urbanized at the edge has decreased over time – sometimes quite dramatically.

There are important questions that need to be asked, including what each provincial leader or mayoral candidate will do to bring the 416 and 905 together as one region to make transportation decisions that will benefit us all.

What we are far from doing is upgrading the network across the region, most of which still lacks frequent express rail service. And the current version of The Big Move emphasizes local transit routes over regional express rail. Why?

This paper describes a method for mapping and measuring the lands designated for growth and urban expansion in the area known as the Greater Golden Horseshoe under the provisions of the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Without cumulative information on the progress of 21 single- and upper-tier municipalities and 89 lower-tier municipalities as they adopt and implement the Plan’s requirements, there's no big picture, no sense of how municipalities compare with one other, and how the various municipal plans all add up.

Growing Cities compares three Canadian metropolitan areas: Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver; through spatial analysis and planning policies. Highlighting that each of the cities developed distinctly given the climate of planning and provincial interests.

Urban Growth Centres and transit corridors are central to the Places to Grow plan, this report traces the importance of these two concepts historically while highlighting facets that contribute to the making of successful nodes and corridors.

The commentary recommends stronger regulations to control the outward expansion of urban areas, better protection for greenlands and agricultural lands, and a monitoring program to track progress towards the government's goals for growth and urbanization.

Based on personal interviews with 64 farmers in six locales around the region, this study sheds light on important matters such as the financial stability of farming operations, what farmers think about agricultural land preservation, and the degree of farmers’ commitment to farming. Their findings suggest that the future of farming in the region is uncertain, and may be endangered.

Most people who live and work in the Toronto region assume that housing and travel costs vary according to where one lives. But if so, how exactly does the pattern play out in the region? Does one save, overall, by living in the suburbs?

The report looks at the history of Metro's Toronto's infrastructure. Expanding on water supply, sewage treatment facilities, and roads – since the Second World War, the report looks at the historical relationshipbetween the construction of the region’s physical infrastructure and the expansion of the region’s urban land use.

As part of the Portrait of a Region series, this study describes recent trends in municipal revenues and expenditures and compares the fiscal arrangements of the different municipalities within the Greater Toronto Area. The author also looks at the public finance implications of Local Services Realignment (the shift in responsibility for certain services from the provincial to municipal governments), the 1998 amalgamation of six cities into the current City of Toronto, and changes in the property tax assessment system.

As part of the Portriat of a Region series, this study provides an overview of the physical geography of the Toronto region, including geological regions, watercourses and watersheds, environmentally significant areas, and agricultural land. The report includes a detailed study of six areas, each 2 kilometres by 2 kilometres, in different parts of the region, each developed during a different time period. These case studies show how typical road patterns, development densities, and arrangements of land uses have changed from the early 20th century to the late 1990s.

As part of the Portrait of a Region series, this report examines the growth trends of the 1990s in the Greater Toronto Area. The study analyses planning policies and development trends relating to urban areas, agricultural areas, environmentally significant areas, and rural areas, in light of the scale and pace of change in the region, to determine whether and how quickly the region is moving towards the goal of "sustainable" development.

As part of the Portrait of a Region series, this study uses key economic indicators to provide an overview of the economy of the Toronto region at the opening of the 21st century. The study compares Toronto's economy to that of other North American city-regions, highlights the major economic trends of the past 20 years, and assesses the future prospects of the region.

As part of the Portrait of a Region series, this study is based on the Transportation Tomorrow Survey, a survey of daily travel patterns by residents of the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton, conducted every five years. The study shows trends in commuting and other travel, automobile ownership, the use of automobiles vs. other forms of transportation, and the relationship of transportation networks and patterns to urban form.

As part of the Portrait of a Region series, this overview describes the demographic characteristics of the Toronto region, including population growth and aging, migration and immigration trends, changes in household composition and formation over the past 30 years, patterns of social and ethnic diversity, and income distribution and inequalities. In addition to describing the long-term trends, the study includes maps showing the spatial distribution of particular groups and household types.